Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) on Monday introduced a bill (SB 112) that would shift the responsibility of an organ donor registry from the state to a not-for-profit organization, the Sacramento Bee reports (Fletcher, Sacramento Bee, 2/4). A law enacted in January 2002 authorized the establishment of the registry to help find matches between organ donors and patients who require transplants, but the state has failed to provide the $1 million required to establish the registry. Under the new bill, the Department of Motor Vehicles would continue to provide organ donor information cards, and individuals who decide to become donors would send a form to a not-for-profit organization that would administer an organ donor registry (Gardner, Copley News/San Diego Union-Tribune, 2/4). Speier, who also sponsored the 2002 law, said that the registry become operational six to eight months after passage of the legislation. "Although the registry became law, it has unfortunately not become reality," she said. Supporters of the legislation maintain that the organ donor registry would help make more organs available for the estimated 16,000 patients in the state who require transplants. According to supporters, families of potential organ donors often do not consider their "evidence of intent" to donate, the Bee reports. Many times the organ donor information card "does not reach the hospital with the donor," Mary Wallace, a spokesperson for the California Transplant Donor Network, said (Sacramento Bee, 2/4).

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